# pipe tobacco shops in istanbul?



## EvoFX (Nov 11, 2008)

I am in Istanbul till tomorrow night, and so far i have not had any luck finding shops. locals will bring me to cigarette tobacco shops instead. has anyone been here and have bought pipe tobacco and know were i can get some?


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## indigosmoke (Sep 1, 2009)

I found this on the web but it's not very hopeful:

"So far, I have written about pipes, but Turkey is the supreme reign of cigarettes. Smoking is permitted everywhere (often among the scandalized grunts of indignant Anglo-Saxon tourists) including trains and buses. Cigarettes are sold individually in the streets and you can run into miniature stalls selling loose shag and rolling papers, but there isn't the slightest hint of latakia or any other local pipe tobaccos. If you are planning a visit and don't smoke cigarettes, you had better prepare yourself! It is extremely tiring to continuously turn down the polite offers of cigarettes and rather easy to offend your host by not accepting one... I hadn't had so much pressure to smoke a cigarette since high school! There are hardly any pipes being smoked about and nearly all those that I saw were in the mouths of tourists. Actually, the street stall that I mentioned earlier also sold a few briar pipes, but they were very low quality products. In fact, if you are an avid briar pipe collector, take a good look around. Some can be found, but they certainly don't look very promising.

The pipe will save you, on the other hand, every time you are looking for a toilet. What does that have to do with pipes? Most toilets are indicated by a pipe and high-heeled shoe... Gents and Ladies. So the pipe exists in the Turkish imagination, but its uses are relegated to obscure duties.

As I could not find any local pipe tobacco, I decided to try smoking a narghilé (Turkish water pipe), but my luck was hardly any better. I looked everywhere, especially in cafes where plenty of older men passed their time away, but I could not find a narghilé anywhere. I had no intention of giving up, however, and finally found one in a carpet shop. Alas, it let me down. Nothing special. The tobacco that I smoked was too similar to regular cigarette shag. I finally decided that the only way to go about this was to buy my own narghilé and narghilé tobacco (a dark dry Persian tobacco called Tömbeki)."

Link to the complete article here:

Pipe Dreams: A Turkish trip


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## EvoFX (Nov 11, 2008)

well that just disappoint's right there.....


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## indigosmoke (Sep 1, 2009)

It is an older article so maybe things have change. I hope you find something.


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## Ottoman (Jan 3, 2010)

indigosmoke said:


> It is an older article so maybe things have change. I hope you find something.


Oh yeah, things have definitely changed. First of all, smoking cigarettes is now prohibited in most public places, restaurants etc. The ban is not currently enforced as aggressively as it is in the U.S, but still, there is now a legal barrier between Turks and their beloved cigarettes. Secondly the nargile (water pipe) smoking has made an incredible comeback in the last few years and there are a lot of cafes etc. dedicated to nargile smoking all around Turkey. Pipe smoking (either long cubuks ("chibuk", a long wooden pipe) for middle class, or meerschaum pipes for rich folks) was common in early twentieth century, but it was almost completely replaced by cigarette smoking by the mid-century.:sad:
Cheers


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## CWL (Mar 25, 2010)

On my travels, the best bet has always been going to high-end tourist hotels as they often will have a cigar shop. These places will sometimes have a tiny selection of pipe tobacco like Davidoff, but you'll be paying top dollar (or Lira).


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## EvoFX (Nov 11, 2008)

CWL said:


> On my travels, the best bet has always been going to high-end tourist hotels as they often will have a cigar shop. These places will sometimes have a tiny selection of pipe tobacco like Davidoff, but you'll be paying top dollar (or Lira).


o bummer. well i guess ill just look for something else then. and buy it in the states hah


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